There was a woman in his bed. At least, it looked like a woman. She smiled at him, pulling the sheet down from her body to expose her b.r.e.a.s.t.s.

Steven slipped into the River. Her features instantly turned male. The creature's eyes stared at him with an intensity of interest and desire that frightened him. Steven was frozen, unable to look away. The creature continued to stare at him, their gaze locked.

It's trying to gauge my interest, Steven thought. He saw the creature's smile broaden as it detected Steven's thought.

"Get the f.u.c.k out!" Steven yelled.

The creature stared at him a moment longer, then smiled even more. It swung its legs off the bed and stood up. Its head nearly reached the ceiling. Its body was a deep red, and looked like it was covered in a thick, leathery skin. It had a giant muscular chest. As it turned profile, he noticed the horns emerging from its forehead; they looked weathered and wooden, reminding Steven of the bark of a tree. When it turned to face him, he saw a giant phallus, erect.

He dropped out of the River. The creature became a woman again. She was his height, and perfectly proportioned. In fact, she looked a lot like Sheryl when they first met.

"I'm on to you," Steven said, backing out of the room and into the kitchen. He noticed the Mason jar of protection sitting on the counter, left out from the night before. He raised the jar to his lips and turned to look at the creature as it followed him.

As he took the first gulp, he saw her turn the corner and enter the kitchen. He noticed the knife block just to her left. The smart thing to do, he thought, is to grab a knife from the block the biggest one and plunge it into my chest. If I'm dead, she can't attack me.

He swallowed the gulp of protection and dropped the Mason jar. It smashed on the ground, the rest of the protection spilling across the kitchen floor. The woman stepped back from the liquid as it raced across the linoleum towards her. Steven took a step towards the knife block, then felt the protection wash into him. He realized how stupid the idea was.

The woman's expression turned from a smile to a scowl, and she walked back into the bedroom.

Steven followed her. When he reached the bedroom, she was nowhere to be seen. He slipped into the River and continued examining the room, looking for any signs of her visit. Aside from the sheets pulled down on the side of the bed where she had been, there was nothing. He left the River.

He checked the clock. 4 AM. He put on some clothes and pulled the bedspread from his bed. He walked into the living room and turned on all the lights. Then he laid down on the sofa and pulled the bedspread around him.

The protection will last several hours, he thought, but I'll need more. Roy will be up in a couple of hours. Let's see if I can sleep between now and then.

He closed his eyes, immediately seeing the giant demon in his bedroom, coming at him. The thing had felt him in bed, had slid itself between his legs. His body involuntarily shook at the thought.

He sat up. I'm not going to be able to sleep, he thought. He walked back into the bedroom and grabbed the book from his nightstand, taking it back into the living room. He opened the book to the middle section, turning pages until he found the new book. He began to read, and read until the sun came up.

Chapter Eleven.

"You look like s.h.i.t," Roy said, letting Steven into his house.

"It was a bad night," Steven said, walking in.

"You shouldn't eat just before bed," Roy said. "It's not good for you."

"This wasn't digestion, Dad," Steven said. "It was demonic."

"Hmm," Roy said. "Are we still going to get coffee?"

"We are," Steven said, "but first I was wondering how much protection you have on hand."

"Just a jar full," Roy said. "Why?"

"Can you make more?" Steven asked. "A lot more? I used up all mine last night, and it's the only reason I'm here talking to you right now."

"Used it all?" Roy asked.

"I dropped it," Steven said. "It's a long story. Can we please take some now, before we go? And do you need any ingredients to make more? We could pick stuff up while we're out."

"No, I've got what I need," Roy said, walking to the cabinet where he kept his Mason jar, and handing it to Steven. Steven took a long gulp and handed it back to Roy. "I suggest you take some," Steven said. "I think you'll need it to listen to what I'm going to tell you."

They drove to Geraldine's and got a booth where they could chat over coffee and eggs. Steven related the night's events to Roy, who became increasingly concerned as the story progressed.

"So it tried to f.u.c.k you?" Roy asked.

"I don't know," Steven said. "The feeling I got was that it really wanted me to want it. Like it wanted me to be on its side. It wanted me to give myself over to it, willingly. It was a secuction."

"To willingly let it f.u.c.k you?" Roy asked. A patron in the booth next to them turned to look at Roy.

"Will you keep your voice down?" Steven asked. "It wasn't about the s.e.x. It was about desire."

"You have a desire to be f.u.c.ked?" Roy asked.

"Will you drop the 'f.u.c.ked' part?" Steven asked. "I'm trying to tell you what it was like. Stop concentrating on that."

"d.a.m.n hard not to," Roy said.

"It was a mind f.u.c.k," Steven said. "Like how it twisted Robbie's thinking. I actually considered stabbing myself. I thought it was a great idea. If I'd taken that swallow of protection two seconds later, I might be dead on my kitchen floor right now."

"Christ!" Roy said. "What do we do?"

"I've been reading up on that," Steven said, taking a sip of coffee and pulling a book out from his jacket. "Judith's book. There's more inside it than just the book itself. Turn to where I've marked."

Roy took the book and turned the pages to Steven's bookmark. He started reading the page. "What am I looking for?" Roy said.

"Didn't it pop out?" Steven said, looking over the top of the book.

"What pop out?" Roy said, tipping the book top down so Steven could see it.

"Huh," Steven said, looking at the pages, which appeared normal. "Can I have it back?"

"Sure," Roy said, handing the book back to Steven. Steven closed the book and reopened it to the bookmark. The new book appeared. He tilted the top of the book down so Roy could see it.

"Look," Steven said. "This book pops up within it."

"Wow," Roy said. "Didn't pop up for me."

Because it's only intended for me, Steven thought. "I'll bet it's responding to my markings," he said.

"Oh, now there's special books for you, too," Roy said sarcastically.

"I read most of it this morning, while I was waiting for you to wake up," Steven said. "It basically describes how to handle a demon. It says once you've formed a connection with one, you only have two choices: either submit or resist. You can't break the connection and you can't kill the demon. You can only give in or make yourself unpalatable."

"Unpalatable?" Roy asked. "Like your markings?"

"I think Aka Manah is an old demon," Steven said, "and I don't think he's as afraid of my markings as most demons. I think he's encountered my type of markings before, and he considers them a challenge. And I think that's why he's interested in me. The challenge of it."

"Could be," Roy said. "Like people who play with snakes, even though they know how dangerous they are."

"Exactly," Steven said. "He gets off on it." The image of the demon's erect phallus entered Steven's mind. He shook his head to clear it.

"I hope you're not basing any of this on what Evie had to say," Roy said. "I don't trust Evie. She's so enamored with Vohuman. Perhaps it's some kind of a trick. Why trust a demon wh.o.r.e?"

The people in the booth next to them turned to look at Roy again.

"Would you please keep your voice down?" Steven said. "There's kids eating in this restaurant. You're going to get us thrown out."

"Demon wh.o.r.e," Roy repeated, whispering.

"I don't trust her either," Steven said. "But there's no disputing the fact that something is after me. I don't know if it was Aka Manah, or Vohuman, or something else. But I get the feeling it's not going to let go until I deal with it somehow."

"So if your markings aren't enough to scare it away," Roy said, "then what?"

"This book seems to understand it," Steven said, pointing at it. "It describes demons being drawn to the markings and being repelled by them at the same time. You have to use the markings, but there are things you need to do to give yourself an advantage."

"Like what?"

"Well, one thing it suggests is amplifying them."

"Amplifying?"

"Yes," Steven said. "They're strong enough to frighten away normal demons on their own, but like I said, not old powerful ones like Aka Manah. You have to amplify the effect of the markings on him, or he'll not back down."

"How do you do that?" Roy asked.

"That's where I'm going to need your help," Steven said. "The book describes a three-step approach. First you get the demon into a setting where it's comfortable. That makes it lower its natural defenses, which sets it up for the next step. When it approaches you, you 'shock' it with an amplification of the markings. The demon has an extreme reaction, going from a relaxed state to a stressed state. Apparently they hate that."

"That's enough to get it to back down?" Roy said.

"No," Steven said. "You have to make sure it echoes. That's the third step."

"Echoes?" Roy asked.

"When the amplification is done, the demon's biology resets back to the relaxed state almost immediately, but within a split second the demon goes on alert, and is no longer relaxed. At that point the amplification won't shock it nearly as strong. You have to shock it again, before it goes on alert. Each time it relaxes you have a split second again to attack and achieve the extreme reaction. It's like an echo, you can attack the thing a hundred times very quickly before it can react. According to this book, it's effective. I get the feeling the book was written by someone with experience."

"How do you amplify it?" Roy asked.

"I do it with my mind," Steven said. "But there's a substance I have to ingest in order to be able to do it. There's an ingredient list in the book."

"And the echo?" Roy asked.

"Mirrors," Steven said. "You position the demon between mirrors when you do it."

"Of course," Roy said, becoming enthusiastic about the idea.

"That leaves the place," Steven said. "I have no idea where you'd do this, where a demon would be comfortable."

"I do," Roy said. "I know just the place."

"Where?" Steven asked.

"Tell me the ingredient list," Roy said. "We have to be sure we can get them all."

Steven flipped the book to the pages that contained the items they'd need for the amplification. He read them off to Roy, who nodded his head at each one. When he was done, Roy smiled.

"There's only one item I'm worried about getting," Roy said, "but I know I saw some at Eliza's when we were at her house in California. Remember her third floor lair?"

"Yes," Steven said. "But she'll want to know what we want it for."

"We'll tell her," Roy said. "Then she'll want to come up and help. And we'll accept her help, because this is going to be tricky to pull off."

Eliza was to arrive on a flight that evening. Steven and Roy used the day to read through the entire book within the book, Steven reading aloud to Roy since the book wouldn't appear for Roy.

They took breaks, and Roy mixed up more protection. Steven asked him if he could watch, and to his surprise, Roy agreed. Sure enough, the concoction was mostly vodka. Roy was insistent that it be Popov.

"That would explain the burning," Steven said. "Could you use a better vodka, something top-shelf?"

Roy glared at him. "I've been making this protection since before you were born. It's what's protecting you from a demon that wants to f.u.c.k you. Why would you want to change it?"

"How many times do I have to tell you it doesn't want to f.u.c.k me?" Steven said. "What it wants are my hands, like Robbie, and it's trying to get me to give in without a fight. And I thought if you used, say, Grey Goose or Belvedere maybe it wouldn't burn as much going down."

"If you think I'd pay that much for vodka you're crazy," Roy said.

"What if I chipped in the difference?" Steven said.

"You're messing with the recipe," Roy said. "Shut up and watch."

To the vodka Roy added a variety of ingredients. He seemed to be eyeballing them all, except for one that he took extra care to measure out very precisely, using a very tiny spoon.

"Remember when I told you about that mineral purchase I and Dixon made from Jurgen?" Roy said as he dropped the contents of the spoon into the liquid in the Mason jar. "Well, this is it. I discovered this gives it a pep."

"A pep?" Steven asked.

"Everybody makes protection their own way," Roy said, "usually the way their parent or whoever winds up training them shows them how to do it. The way I'm showing you is exactly like my father's way, except for this mineral."